Drug Dilution Hastened Death of Cancer Patient, Doctors Say

KANSAS CITY, Mo., Nov. 23 — For the first time, federal prosecutors say they have proof that Robert R. Courtney's dilution of chemotherapy drugs hastened, and perhaps caused, a cancer patient's death.

Prosecutors hope the findings by two cancer specialists will result in the stiffest possible sentence for Mr. Courtney, a former pharmacist, who has already pleaded guilty to diluting two cancer drugs with a motive of profit.

Mr. Courtney could receive 30 years in prison without parole at his sentencing on Dec. 5.

In court papers filed on Friday, prosecutors presented reports by two oncologists. Both said the 2001 death of Evelyn Coates, 53, from complications of ovarian cancer came sooner than it would have had she received full doses of her chemotherapy drugs.

"It is even possible she could have been cured if she had received the chemotherapy treatments in the strengths prescribed by her treating oncologist," wrote one of the doctors, Mark J. Ratain, a professor of medicine at the University of Chicago.

In his plea agreement, Mr. Courtney admitted diluting cancer drugs for 34 patients 158 times between March and June 2001. He has since admitted he diluted drugs as far back as 1992, affecting as many as 4,200 patients.